It's not Minor League baseball - the Flyers are in the independent Northern League. Just like last year, the Flyers played the Joliet Jackhammers again. The game started slow - 3 innings in an hour. We were on the first base side and we could see lightning out in the distance to the north all during the game. Finally, in the 6th, it started to rain. You know that I just don't leave games, but tonight we did. I just wasn't into it. I was listening to the Sox-Royals game on the radio (I brought a color LCD TV with and watched a few innings, but with it being on a UHF station (26) and being far from downtown, the signal wasn't the greatest), and couldn't handle some of the bad fielding, pitching, running and hitting that I saw. I didn't feel too bad leaving early - we'll be here again in two weeks for Carol's company outing. We left when the Flyers were ahead 5-3. They went on to win 8-3.

Well, we're still in Borneo. The teams are at the Sepilok Nature Resort, and it's time to depart: Reichen & Chip at 10:26pm, Jon & Al at 12:56am, David & Jeff at 1:11am, and finally Jon & Kelly at 2:42. Teams must now drive themselves to the Puu Jih Shih Buddhist Temple, the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysian Borneo. Once there, they must search through thousands of tiny Buddha figurines for the one with their names on it. Hidden behind that Buddha is a key to a rattan bag, which holds their next clue. The teams get $400 for this leg of the race, so their must be some pricey things coming up. Chip & Reichen get to the temple first, find their Buddha, get their key and open their clue. Teams must now travel 4,000 miles to Seoul, South Korea. When they land, they'll have to find Namsam Park and make their way to the base of the Seoul Tower (Namsam Tower?), where they'll find their next Route Marker.Vans for the airport arrive every 30 minutes starting at 12:00 midnight, but each van can carry only one team. The Boys decide to chill and wait for the van and have time for a prayer in the temple. Then, they're off to the airport. Jon & Al do their thing at the temple, as well as David & Jeff, who exit the temple while The Clowns were still waiting for their van. Kelly & Jon do their thing. Next thing you know it's daytime and we're back at Kota Kinabalu Airport. All of the teams arrive and wind-up booking the same flights - Singapore, and on to Seoul. In Singapore, David & Jeff start making phone calls to airlines for an earlier connection, and find one through Hong Kong which gets them in at 4:55 - an hour earlier. They get on Stand-by. Or, they think they got on Stand-By. Jon & Al show-up and have the same idea. Quick shots of Chip & Reichen eating hamburgers and french fries at the airport. So, it turns out that David and Jeff bought a ticket but didn't "check into their system" whatever that meant. They're upset that they really don't have Stand By so they have a discussion and they can somehow get on the flight. So do Jon & Al. They leave at 7pm to Hong Kong. Meanwhile, the teams waiting for their flight to Seoul, start to wonder what happened to other teams. They depart on their flight at 10:35pm. Sure enough, it's about 5am and the Hong Kong flight arrives in Seoul. The teams have come most of the way around the globe, and it's here in Korea where they start hitting problems with language. No one seems to speak english. The two teams make it, somehow to Seoul TowerTeams must now travel over 50 miles to the rural Sundam Valley, only minutes away from the North Korean border. Once there, they must locate the Route Marker on the bank of the Han-Tan River. Team Who & The Clowns decide to share a van, since it's a bit pricey ($100 one way). The other teams land in Seoul at 5:40am, with Kelly & Jon taking the lead. Both teams pick up their clues and are on their way. Well, actually Chip & Reichen aren't on their way yet - their driver doesn't understand where they need to go (that language barrier again).

Chip & Reichen decide to get a taxi driver to take them to the Grand Hyatt Seoul and then tried to get the workers there (bellmen, concierges) to get them an English-speaking taxi driver - which they sort of get. Meanwhile the two lead teams are now at a gas station trying to get directions. Chip & Reichen's taxi driver now has his hazard flashers on, which somehow means he has an emergency and can actually run red lights. (?) Team Who & The Clowns all of a sudden realize that they are no longer in the valley, they see army tanks, and they're crossing a bridge they were told at the gas station NOT to cross. They are on their way to the DMZ!!!!!! They get their driver to turn around... and are somehow passed by Kelly & Jon!!! Chip & Reichen arrive at Rafting Korea - the first team to arrive - and they're shocked - SHOCKED! Kelly & Jon arrive 2nd. David & Job take the #3 claim ticket, while Jon & Al take #4. They open their clues to find a Roadblock "Which of you has the colder personality?"One Team member must plunge into the frigid water, fight the current, and swim underneath the frozen river to the exit hole. Once their body temperature rises to a safe level, a doctor will clear them to leave and they'll receive their next clue. There's a great little piece here... the clue says that the person has to "strip to their skivvies" to swim. As Chip and Reichen walk toward the river, you can hear Reichen ask "What are skivvies?" The Korean crew now cuts large square holes in the ice with chainsaws. The ice is about 12-18" thick. Damn, this has gotta be cold. The medical staff asks question of Chip as he gets ready. Things like "Have you had a heart attack before? Hearing problems?" And they lead chip out onto the ice - barefoot, of course. Chip just goes right in and swims under the ice. Kelly is astonished and excited to see this. The distance doesn't look too far. This just looks like hell. Chip warms up enough and they get the next clue. Teams must now travel back to Seoul and find Subway Station 228 - one stop among hundreds in the city's maze of subway lines. Somewhere in the crowded station, they'll find their next Route Marker. Chip & Reichen take off in their taxi. Time for Jon and his turn. Kelly runs along the ice with him and helps in the tent. They leave. Jeff is next and his body takes time to warm up. Al is the last guy. I just noticed that they get their clue in a Ziploc bag at the ladder that comes out of the ice. David & Jeff decide to leave, saying that they really need to split-up from The Clowns (saying that sharing the cab was a huge mistake). Now, wait a minute. Jon and Al are getting ready to leave. If David & Jeff left... there's no cab!

Turns out, Team Who? (aka "The Goats") moved the cab, and they decide that they will find another cab, and then they'll split up. Chip & Reichen tell their cab driver that they need to go to Subway Station 228 and somehow the cab driver knows that it's the stop for Seoul University! He obviously knows where he's going. The two Sharing Teams arrive at an intersection that looks IDENTICAL to when they caught up to Kelly & Jon. I need to look at this again on my TiVo... DAMN!!! It's the same scene!!! Not exactly the same scene, this one is actually a piece they cut out between two scenes of the trip there!!! Damn you Jerry Bruckheimmer!!! Anyway, Team Who? gets out of the shared van into a cab. The Clowns take off. The Chipsters run into really bad traffic. They all run into bad traffic. Everyone has the idea just to get to the nearest subway station and they all travel by subway to 228. Kelly & Jon have a little argument about having to get across the river to get to the subway station - as if Jon doesn't believe subways run under rivers. Team Who hits the subway and they're off. Off getting lost again, that is. They get out of the subway, and take a cab to the National University. In the meantime, Kelly & Jon arrive by taxi at Subway Station 228, just as The Chipsters get off the subway train inside Subway Station 228. The Chipsters scour the platform for the Route Marker, which we see through Kelly & Jon is upstairs. They get the clue first and we see that it's a Detour - "Strong Hands' or "Strong Stomach". In "Strong Hands" teams follow a map to a martial arts center. Then, using the ancient art of tae kwon do, each team member must break three sets of wooden planks. Breaking the planks may seem daunting, but if they master the skills they're shown by the instructor, they could finish quickly. In "Strong Stomach" teams follow a map to a restaurant, where team member will have to eat a Korean delicacy. What they'll find out when they get there is that the Korean delicacy is a live octopus. There's no skill required for this task, but teams will finish only as fast as their stomachs allowed. Kelly decides they should "break a board". (I'm ignoring the fact that Jon said that if they went to the restaurant they'd probably be eating "butt lickers".) The Chipsters decide to go to the restaurant. They enter, sit, down, hear chopping in the back room and notice the bowl of live octopus sitting in the middle of the table. Kelly & Jon enter the martial arts center. David & Jeff are having problems with their cab driver, who seems to be doing tai chi in the front seat. Back at the restaurant, the Chipsters get their plates of octopus. The plate is in constant motion - yes, even though it's chopped up, everything still works and still moves!!! Reichen talks about how he tried to chew and swallow it, but its tentacles attached themselves to his teeth!!!! He yanks it out of his mouth, flings it onto his plate and IT CRAWLS OFF!!!! HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!!!! Chip starts retching. Jon goes through all three boards, while still fully dresses, including this stupid hat that he wears. Kelly steps up and her first punch doesn't do a thing. You can look into her eyes and see the tears well up. She's hurting. Back at the restaurant, Reichen looks sick and he's slowing down. Chip decides that the best way to handle this is to do this like oyster shooters "like at their wedding". Who has oyster shooters at their wedding? Anyway, they take small bits of octopus and slug it down with cold water. Back at the martial arts center, Kelly breaks a board. She needs to break 5, unfortunately. She goes again and gets through her first stack. She hits the second stack - and cracked the first board. That looked worse than before. She goes again and breaks the stack. A close-up of her hand shows that it's red and raw. The last stack is 7 boards. Jon, trying to motivate her, says the quote that's the title of the show, and miraculously, she drives her hand through the entire stack. They get their clue - "make your way to the next Pit Stop..." Teams must drive across town to Gyeongbokgung Palace, the largest royal residence in all of Seoul. The pavilion on the palace grounds is the Pit Stop for this leg of the race. Waiting for a taxi, you see that Kelly's hand is red, and she's bleeding at the first knuckle on her thumb and index finger. The Clowns arrive via subway at Subway Station 228 and get the clue- The choose "Strong Hands". Back at the restaurant, Reichen finally gets the last pieces of octopus down and they're off to the Pit Stop. David & Jeff arrive via taxi at Subway Station 228 and choose "Strong Stomach". They have no idea. Jon blasts through his first stack of boards, and it actually startles him a bit. He easily gets through the other two stacks. Team Who? arrives at the restaurant for some san-nak-gee They freaked a bit that it was still alive. Jeff says "The tentacles still work, bro." David says "One's, like, climbing off my plate." David: "They suction on your teeth while you're trying to chew 'em." Jeff: "That's a big plate of it, too." David: "Dude, there's like eyeballs and stuff. This is disgusting." Oh, yeah. Panic sets in. They bail and decide to do "Strong Hands". Al takes his first strike at his first stack and blows it. His second try nails it. He sails through the rest, they get the clue, and they're on their way to the Pit Stop. Team Who? makes it to the center, and Jeff goes through his three stacks of boards. David blows his first punch and nails the next three. They're off to the Pit Stop. Chip & Reichen don't like their passive taxi driver. Kelly is bitching at Jon as they get out of their taxi that this isn't it and it's back where they were, and they should have listened to their first instincts. They are running around the palace grounds. The Chipsters arrive and they're off to find The Amazing Bathmat. There comes Jon followed by Kelly on to the mat as Phil tells them "You're Team Number 1". They also win a "vacation to the sunny Caribbean" compliments of American Airline's website "which you can enjoy after the race." The Chipsters find Phil and they're "Team Number 2". It's an edited cab race now. Here come The Clowns as "Team Number 3", as Team Who? walks onto the mat. Phil says: "David & Jeff - you're the last team to arrive. I'm... happy to tell you, however, this is the second of three predetermined non-elimination legs, and you're both still in the race." What, another one????

Next week: Kelly repels face first down a building and Reichen may sleep with the fishes... actually he may be eaten by sharks!

I'm not sure where I was, but it was after work. I don't have a clue where I was working. I was going through some paperwork and it had post-it notes on it, all of the notes where error messages on different system crashes. Some of them weren't Windows based, but were MVS error messages (don't know why, but one of them was an IEA034I message and I have no recollection on what the hell that message means, since I haven't been an MVS System Programmer in about 15-20 years). My dad came over, sat down at the table, and wanted to learn about the errors. In detail. He talked to me and really wanted to know (He hadn't spoke in well over a year, due to the laryngectomy... the last time I saw him). I was frustrated. I mean, this man never touched a computer in his life and he wanted details on why the crashes happened. I couldn't do it, and flat out turned him down. He was mad. He was yelling and swearing and walked off.

I turned down time to spend time with my dad... in my dream. I don't know what it means, but it bothered the hell out of me...

The house is in chaos. They don't like what Nathan did this week. Dana nominated Alison and Jack for eviction. Nathan, who has become very close to Alison, won the Power of Veto and removed her from nomination, forcing Dana (who Jack says in tonight's show has "her brains in her panties" and "has as much sex appeal as a buzzard's crotch" (!)) to put up David. Alison and Nathan realize that they have become the target of the house, and practice non-stop to try to win the Head of Household competition. It's obvious that everyone likes David, but he's a really strong player. By a vote of 5-2, David is evicted from the house. Then, in Dana's own nightmare realized, Alison wins Head of Household. The only thing I feel is good about that is I think she'll get rid of people I don't like. God, these people are young.

Taking over half an hour to post a friggin' blog entry. MovableType is just timing-out - I never get the "Rebuilding..." message. This has been happening off and on for about 3 months now. Everything was fine earlier today. I just have to tough-it-out and save a few bucks so I can move this monster.

THEMEBBC America aired the first episode of Ground Force America, this one being shot on Valentine's Day in Atlanta. OK, other than trying to do a garden in February in the United States (which, I don't care where you live, just doesn't give you great weather), I loved this show! It's the same format, but it's stretched to a full hour. They got back to doing something they haven't really done since Alan left - they talked about the plants they were using. Another odd piece of the show? The night of Day 1, they all went to an Atlanta Thrashers hockey game! (The cool thing for me is that the Thrashers are the parent club of the AHL Chicago Wolves!) This was a great first episode and I can't wait for the rest of the season. I like the one hour format.

OK, so I KNOW it's not baseball related, but they turned-on the lights at the newly renovated Soldier Field tonight for the first time to start a 100-hour test for aiming and color testing. I'll need to check this place out, but I can wait until next year...

The website is still sick. I'm looking at maybe trying to get this site limping along and find a new hosting service. At least I sort of got the website back. It's been going up and down (according to my monitoring service - Alertra). It was down for another 8 hours this morning. A few configuration changes to MovableType and my blogging is up and running again.

The drive to "The Cell" was quick, but dark. Dark, low-hanging clouds everywhere. The Dan Ryan looked wet. We got to the park, and forgot that it was a Willy Wonka Kid's Day, so even though we got there early, we had to park in Lot F (at least it's not Lot L). The park looked weird. It's noon, it's dark, and the lights aren't on. We walked around looking for emergency rain ponchos just in case we ran into some weather. The autograph sessions were over, when the rain started. Then it came down HARD. We had fled up the section to sit underneath the Club Level overhang, waiting for te game to start. There was a 36 minute delay, but the game started. The temperature dropped from about 83 degrees to 69 degrees and the wind was gusting up to 31 mph. Bartolo Colon was like the way I saw him on Tuesday. Rocco Baldelli had a solo homer in the first and Colon didn't throw a hit for the next 18 batters. He had 8 strikeouts and no walks. Offensively, the team was just the way I wanted to see them. I just wished we had some of these runs yesterday. We had home runs by Carlos Lee, Frank Thomas, and Aaron Rowand. Tony Graffanino had a brain fart in the fifth when we was playing 2nd - in a double play attempt he sailed his throw into the stands along the 1st base line. Colon took the mound in the 9th, and for some reason, Jerry Manuel pulled him before he could pitch. Jerry got BOOOED. Big Time. The crowd obviously wanted Bartolo to get a complete game. I mean he had a 3-hit, one run game, let him have the whole game. But Kelly Wunsch came in and gave up a hit, but had a strikeout. He hadn't played in a while and I totally agree with getting him some quality time. You know, the bullpen was kind of depleted, so this wasn't a bad move. I mean, some of the guys in the pen I wouldn't trust anyway. Odd coincidence in the game - Jose Valentin played short and batted 8th, while his brother Javier Valentin was the catcher and batted 8th.

Back at "The Cell" for tonight's game. We're coming off an 8 game winning streak.... but you can't tell that tonight. Mike Porzio started the game... and lasted only 3 1/3 innings, giving up 4 runs and 2 home runs with only one strikeout. He got sent down after the game (for all we know, he was packed and gone by the time the game ended). I blame the loss on Jerry Manuel. I just feel he-mismanaged the game with the pitching staff. Porzio wasn't cutting it early, Rick White came in and did OK for a while, but ultimately got hung with the loss, giving up 5 runs. Danny Glover was fine, but Billy Koch didn't look all that good, giving up a run and 2 walks. He should never have been put in as a closer tonight - he hasn't earned that position as far as I'm concerned. In general, pitchers were left in too long, as if Jerry wanted them to prove something... and then they didn't and they were still in there. When Koch was failing, no one was up in the bullpen. It made me feel like we were conceding the game. We gave up 15 hits. Oh, and I'm not happy with Joe Crede, who dropped the ball in two different plays at third. I think we'd be better off with Tony Graffanino in the lineup. And Brian Daubach just seems to be a waste of a roster spot. On a night where KC and Minnesota both lost and we could have made-up a game in the standings, we instead are exactly where we were when the day started - 4 games out.

I'm starting to look for new hosting. I'm pissed. I'm not getting ANY service at all. I haven't actually blogged for days. I'm writing things down so that I can add entries when I'm up but I'm getting no information and no support on why I'm getting 550: Permission Denied when I'm trying to FTP a few things. I get 500 Internal Server Errors every time I try anything in MovableType and everything was fine before the upgrade.

I was able to FTP everything back to a machine here in case I need to get to a different hosting service. I wonder if my MT databases (NOT MySQL, I'm afraid) will be able to be moved to a new server without any loss of information - I don't have any recent exports to work with. The most recent ones are from weeks ago.

Last week, Carol & I were soaking up the great vibes of attending Major League Baseball's All-Star Game festivities.

This morning, players reported to Training Camp. Football training camp.

I'm not ready. It's baseball season. My life's Baseball Clock is still ticking. My White Sox have just won 8 in a row as of tonight. (Frank Thomas hit his 400th career home run). Football won't exist for months for me.

Time for another Friday Five... 1. If your life were a movie, what would the title be? Probably the title of my Blog - "My Mundane Mid-Life"2. What songs would be on the soundtrack? Lot's of 80's stuff. Don't know why, I just love the genre.3. Would it be a live-action film or animated? Why? Wow. I've never thought of that. Live action would be more "tru-to-life", but, you know, you just don't want to get too true to my life, so animation may be the way to go. Traditional animation, like Warner Brothers and not high tech Pixar-type or the newer styles of animation like Johny Bravo, Ren & Stimpy, or Powerpuff Girls. And I don't think my life warrants Anime.4. Casting: who would play you, members of your family, friends, etc? I'm thinking Miguel Ferrer would play me. Bernadette Peters would play my wife Carol (in a TOTALLY non-singing, non-dancing role).5. Describe the movie preview/trailer. No narration. Just shots of me on the computer, working on my blog, me driving in my car, me walking into the ballpark, me watching the White Sox. Fade to black. Fade up title "My Mundane Mid-Life". Cross fade to "Coming Soon". Fade to black.

The teams leave from Manukan Island in Malaysia. At 2:05am, Jon & Al and Chip & Reichen depart by taking one of those boast they used on the last show to go back to the Boat Jetty in Kota Kinabalu, then grab a taxi to go to Poring Hot Springs 78 miles away and follow the flags to the next route marker by walking a series of rope bridges over 100 feet above the ground.(Oh, and they have $130 for this leg of the race). Millie & Chuck depart at 2:19am. The cab rides are a tad bit treacherous, as cattle have a tendency to sleep in the middle of the roads at night.David & Jeff depart at 2:50am, and Kelly & Jon depart at 3:36am.

Chip & Reichen are the first to arrive at Poring Hot Spring at 5:02am, but the place doesn't open until 6:30am. Jon & Al show up. Millie & Chuck show up. Kelly & Jon... aren't there yet. (There's a shot of Millie, yawning like a rooster, when you can hear the sound of a rooster crowing in the background. Weird.) The gates open at 6:30am and the teams rush in, with Millie & chuck stripping their backpacks and running toward the rope bridges, Chip & Reichen were right behind, followed by The Clowns. THe Road Marker tells then to chose a marked car (another SUV) and drive 145 miles to the Trushidup Palm Oil Plantation. Everyone starts to leave the rope bridges as Kelly & Jon arrive (but wait as Jon has to, um, relieve himself in the bushes before they go in! The groups pass Kelly & Jon on the way out, so they try to backtrack where the people were coming from, but without a lot of luck and get lost. The teams have a lot of problems with fogged-up windshields in the early morning sun. (In fact, the cameraman with David & Jeff had his lens all fogged-up as well). Chip turned on the defroster as soon as they got into the SUV so they were able to pull around the pack that had pulled over trying to clear their windshields. In the meantime, Kelly & Jon are still trying to find flags to follow at the Hot Springs. Millie & Chuck haven't slept well in days, and both of them are falling asleep while driving! Kelly & Jon still can't find flags. Jon runs ahead and yells back to Kelly who's off camera in the jungle "Let's, go Kelly, this is it I can see it." "Shut up!" you can here her yell back. "I see it!" "You do not!" she yells again from the underbrush. Then Jon stops and says slowly "Kelly? Move your ass. Now." Kelly comes running up and they run the rope bridge, get the clue and Kelly tells Jon to "Just open the Fast Forward, don't even bother opening the other thing." We sort of have to wait for Phil to tell us what the Fast Forward says because Jon mangles the words so badly you don't have a clue. Phil starts to tell us what's going on with the Fast Forward when you notice that he's in the middle of the jungle... and there are orangutans on a platform behind him in the distance. To use the Fast Forward, the teams have to drive over 140 miles to the town of Sepilok and find the world famous Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center, home to last last wild orangutans in northern Borneo. Then they will have to hike deep into the forest to a feeding station, a each has to feed two pieces of fruit to the orangutans to claim the Fast Forward. (hey, you know what? This place looks familiar... I think Julia Roberts was here doing a documentary for PBS a few years ago...) As Kelly runs to the SUV, she says "if somebody claims this, we're screwed. This is it. It's do or die now." Meanwhile, Chip & Reichen realize that they just may have been on the wrong road, and realize that, by accident, they're heading to the Fast Forward, and decide to do it.

In the meantime, Jon & Al have reached the plantation and have found a Detour - "Chop" or "Haul". In "Chop", teams must must use local tools to chop down palm nut bunches with clue envelopes attached. However, for every one envelope with a clue, there are three that are empty. In "Haul", teams must use a wheelbarrow to carry 25 palm nut bunches to a corresponding truck. The nut bunches are sharp and cumbersome, so getting it done could take some time. When their truck is fully loaded, it will drive away revealing their clue. Jon & Al choose "Haul". This looks like hell. The bunches were heavy and had sharp points. Trying to heave these nut bunches into the back of the dump trucks was hard and almost looked dangerous when they would roll back out and fall to the ground.

Millie & Chuck are driving around trying to find the plantation. They stop at any plantation they see, looking for directions. She can't read maps well (and she isn't driving) so they're just not sure where they're going, even after they get directions. David & Jeff pull into the plantation, and didn't see a route marker box. Well, there's a good reason for that as Jon & Al found out - the clues are in a wheelbarrow in the middle of the road. David & Jeff drove right on by and had to turn around. They stop by THe Clowns and ask "Hey, Dudes, where's the clue?" Al points straight ahead and says "Right up there, off to the right". The drive right buy - again They yell out "Al! Where?" Where?" "On the wheelbarrow" which is now behind them. "The first wheelbarrow?" "The green one!" I think they finally saw it behind the SUV. They get out "Oh, this one!" and mention that Jon & Al were really cool in helping them. They also choose "Haul". Jon & Al get their 25 bunches loaded and get a clue - using their map they have to drive 35 miles to Gomantong Caves for the next Route Marker.Kelly & Jon are still driving to the Fast Forward. Chip & Reichen arrive at the Sanctuary and hike 20 minutes into the forest.

Millie & Chuck arrive at the plantation. Millie wants to do "Haul", and they start to do it. After getting one bunch loaded in the dump truck, Chuck doesn't think they could do this. And go to see what "Chop" is all about. After a quick try at chopping palm branches (a very quick try), Chuck decides they should do "Haul".

Chip & Reichen arrive at the orangutan feeding station, and were able to feed the orangutans. They get their Fast Forward pass and now have to go to the Sepilok Nature Resort. Hmmm... that sounds like it's right there. Millie & Chuck ar trying to work together. Millie wants to help by tossing nut bunches to Chuck, but they're pretty damn sharp and spiny, so Chuck doesn't want her doing that.Millie wants to do everything fast. Chuck heaves a nut bunch onto the dump truck which rolls off and almost kills their cameraman. They finally get their 25 bunches loaded and get their clue and leave.

Kelly and Jon arrive at Sepilok as Kelly is trying to teach Jon how to pronounce "orangutan". They pull up, go to the baskets of fruit... and find a red tag that says "SORRY Fast Forward Taken - Pick Up the Race where you left off". Whoo boy. They climb back into the SUV and drive off as Kelly says "You're always right, I'm always wrong. We're done. *sigh*" To which, Jon, who's had enough of this, lashes back with "Kelly, go f*** yourself!" Kelly is all "What did you just say to me? What did you just say to me? I'll tell you what, Jon, you're walking a thin line. This was a chance that we decided to take, but YOU will not talk to me like that." She throws the map and gets out of the car. Wait - where are they that she could just walk off on him??? After a commercial break, she's back in the car and they're driving through the Malaysian jungle. They're still fighting, though. Jon is the person that says the title of the show.

Somehow, Millie & Chuck go down the road in the opposite direction of the sign for the Gomantong Caves. Since the only see the backside of the sign, they continue down the road in the wrong direction. Jon & Al pull into the cave parking lot and run inside. They get to the Route Marker and find a Roadblock - "It's time for the ladder part of the race." In this Roadblock, [that] person has to climb one of [these] two traditional rattan ladders to a point where they will be dangling 50 feet above the stone floor of the cave. Locals do this to collect birds' nests to make Birds Nest Soup. The teams will be doing it to get [this] basket and retrieve a clue from inside. Al says Jon will do it. Jon goes up the ladder, but the rungs ar far apart and he says in a voice-over that there's so many birds in the cave, that the rungs are slippery from the bird poop. Great.
David & Jeff arrive at the road to the caves, making sure there wasn't a Route Marker box that they missed. Jon gets the clue and gets down the ladder. The clue says to drive to the Pit Stop, the Sepilok Nature Resort. Phil shows the place, and there's even the obligatory zoom-in to The Amazing Bathmat. Jon & Al pass David & Jeff ("The Goats") on their way in. Chip & Reichen find their way to the Pit Stop. Phil tells them they're "Team Number 1" and they've won a vacation to "festive Latin America" (and where exactly is that?) from American Airline's website that they can enjoy after the race. David & Jeff hit the Roadblock, with David doing the climbing.

Millie & Chuck cross a bridge over a river and Chuck asks Millie if she sees water on the map, and they have to stop and try to get more directions. Kelly & Jon make it to the plantation. Kelly wants to do "Haul" and forces Jon to do it. David gets out onto the ladder and get their next clue. Kelly & Jon have a discussion about putting the nut bunches "in the appropriate truck". Their wheelbarrow says "5" and Kelly says that the truck says "C". Well, yes, it says "C" all right - right next to the hand printed "5". They look for another truck. They leave the wheelbarrow and go cut some palm branches. The first nut bunch they drop has a "Try Again" inside the clue envelope. Millie & Chuck are still lost, still asking locals for help. Jon drops the second nut bunch and they get a real clue. They start driving to the caves. Millie and Chuck ar now driving in the correct direction and see the sign that they passed hours ago. Chuck even asks "Isn't this where we came out?" They realize just how much time they've killed by going the wrong way. All of a sudden, Millie & Chuck and Kelly & Jon arrive at the caves at the same time and the adrenaline kicked-in. Everyone ran to the Roadblock. Jon & Chuck head up the ladders at the same time. In the meantime, Jon and Al arrive at the Pit Stop as "Team Number 2". Jon gets down the ladder first and the two teams run their asses off to their SUV's. Kelly & Jon are pumped.

Millie & Chuck don't know where they're going. They follow Kelly and Jon. Millie is almost crying as she pleads with Chuck to read the map because she can't do it. David & Jeff arrive as "Team Number 3" at the Pit Stop. Kelly & Jon try to shake Millie & Chuck by passing other traffic, and Chuck has trouble shifting. Millie gets her inhaler out and they get ready for a final sprint. THey hit the resort and there's a sprint.

The music swells, and here comes Kelly & Jon as "Team Number 4".

The mind starts reeling... At the beginning of the show, you realize Phil did it again - "Who will be eliminated... next." Every time some one reads the clue to get themselves to the Pit Stop, not one of them says "last team checking in will be eliminated". Phil doesn't say that that the last team arriving at the pit stop will be eliminated.

But then you realize that Phil has been saying the teams are "Team Number 1" and not "you're the first to arrive" like last week. Huh? What? Wait! And then Millie and Chuck arrive last and Phil tells them that they've been eliminated from the race!!!!

Next week: Swimming under ice in Korea, Reichen eats live baby octopus and Jon & Al take a wrong turn and pass a line of tanks on the way to the North Korean border!!!! AAAAUUUUURRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

Carol & I have been busy enough lately that we haven't taken enough time to go catch a few movies that came out that we wanted to see. Well, since my days are free, we talked last night about movie that I would be "allowed" to see. Those would be ones that Carol wouldn't care about if she saw them or not. On that list was The Matrix Reloaded. The problem is that it's not really playing anywhere. I found a 1:45 afternoon showing at the AMC Cantera 30 in Warrenville. It's a nice facility and the theater was empty. The movie... sucked. I understand why it didn't do as well as the box office. The effects were OK, but a rave in Zion? I don't get it.

Note to Big Brother 4 houseguests: You idiots - a pawn is never safe. You've got a big friggin' chess set on the basketball court outside and you all should know this by now. Tonight, by a vote of 6-2. Michelle Maradie, the pretty 19 year old college student from Boca Raton, Florida is evicted from the house. *sigh* She was great eye candy and everyone told her she was "safe", but a pawn is never safe. Forget setting your sights on Dana, who won HOH tonight and is safe for a week. How about getting rid of Robert and Jee? Maybe Justin as well. All three need to go.

It was late and the weather was as odd as the day - it's the lattter half of July and it's in the upper 60's and the clouds almost look menacing.

I went to "The Cell" for an afternoon baseball game. My time at uemployment just got me to the park late. In the bottom of the first, I was on Wentworth at 35th, waiting at the stoplight right at the park when Frank Thomas hit his 399th homerun. He's now tied for 36th all-time with Al Kaline, and it was his 23rd of the season, and his 91st career first-inning home run (seventh in 2003). (Want to hear something weird? Houston’s Jeff Bagwell hit his 400th career homer on Sunday at Cincinnati, and Frank is just one away from 400. Thomas and Bagwell both were born on 5/27/68, were 1994 Most Valuable Players and hit two home runs apiece on Sunday! Weird, eh?) By the time I got to the parking lot Maggliio Ordonez hit his 19th of the season. By the time I got into the park, it was the bottom of the 2nd. Bartolo Colon, who has been 0-4 over his last 7 starts, gave up a lead-off double to start the 1st (to the left fielder Coco Crisp - please tell me that's a nickname... oh, good his real name is Covelli L. Crisp) and then retired the next 17 batters. He looked a hell of a lot better than he has been lately. He threw 111 pitches, 107 were fastballs (the others were two changeups, a curveball and a slider). Carlos Lee had a homer in the 6th, and that made 17 over the past 7 games for the team. With the win, the boys are now 50-50 - yes, that's .500. It's about time. We're 5 games out.

My day started with a late start to go and file for unemployment. The facility was mobbed, not like the last time I was there. Back then, I was in and out in minutes (of course, it helped that they actually had all the info on me since I had been on unemployment before). This time, after an hour, we were taken in groups (not individually) because they're swamped and understaffed. That was a little, um, uncomfortable. It was hard not to overhear other "claimants" information.

Not much to say, except it was a great day. I know I've spent a lot of time here during my past unemployment periods, but it's still foreign to me. I still find myself thinking about things at work, but I have to keep telling myself to forget about it and them.

I don't want to feel too comfortable at home. I want to get back out there... after a short break. The White Sox have an afternoon game tomorrow... I feel the need to go to a day game...

Back at "The Cell" for an afternoon game. It's in the low 80's, but the humidity is a killer. The game started-off a lot better than others recently. Tony Graffanino had a lead-off stand-up triple in the first. Frank Thomas had a homerun in the first, then got another in in next at bat in the third. He was up in the 4th but didn't get anywhere, so Magglio Ordonez homered for him. The Sox ad 5 home runs in the game (Paul Konerko and Jose Valentin had the others). Esteban Loaiza got the win with 7 innings of work, with 7 strikeouts. Now that is what I expected of this team against the Tigers. We should have been playing better all along... we need to turn the corner and get our act in gear.

After a nice leisurely day, it's back to "The Cell". The remnants of All-Star week are fading: the star mowed into Center Field will be gone in a few more clippings, as well as the painted logos in front of the dugouts. The gift shops are re-stocked, this time with more White Sox trinkets instead of All-Star logo-emblazoned souvenirs.

The game, again, doesn't start well. In fact, Nate Cornejo had a no-hitter through 6 2/3 innings. Then Paul Konerko got a hit and the Sox get 7 consecutive hits. Tony Graffanino had a nice pinch-hit three-run homer. At least we got a good win out of it. The game was only 2:31 long, and the fireworks afterward weren't in the dark. I was home way before 10. I guess that happens when you don't hit.

I'm totally OK with it. I feel a big weight lifted off my shoulders. I have been unhappy for so long, that this feels good.

A new weight is taking its place, that of dealing with unemployment. I've been here before. The weight starts out light, almost imperceptible. It gets heavier as the days progress, but right now, just the difference in weights is a joy.

I'm a bachelor this weekend - Carol is going up to Michigan to Diane's house, so I'll be alone to decompress, which Carol says I should do. Just relax and we'll talk next week.

Time for another Friday Five... 1. When was the last time you cheated? Hmmm... I guess I cheat every day when I drive, when I run a yellow light, go over the limit.2. When was the last time you stole? Stole???? You mean like the binder clip I have in my pocket right now? I'm always taking office supplies... paper clips, I love binder clips (and I don't know why)... they don't have any good pens here, though3. When was the last time you lied? I work at a help desk... I lie every day to customers to tell them one thing when in actuality something else is happening behind the scenes. In fact, my boss wants me too. I don't like misleading the user community, but I do.4. When was the last time you broke or vandalized another's property?NEVER, I don't do that. I may take office supplies or lie, but that's it. I don't cross the line.5. When was the last time you hurt a loved one? Wow. It was about a decade ago, that I know of. I may have done it unknowingly.

There it was in the open... Phil's words: "Who will be eliminated... next." Ah HA! Is there an elimination tonight? If there was, Phil's words are usually: "Who will be eliminated... tonight."

The teams are still in Alleppey enjoying their pit stop when... WBBM butts-in to tell us about Tornado Warnings and Severe Thunderstorm Warnings! I have no idea what's happening in the show, since the local weatherman is trying to tell us to duck and cover. This also means that my DirecTV reception is going to degrade during the show and who knows what I'll miss.

The show comes back and the teams are sitting around yakking about themselves. Jon (of Kelly & Jon) thinks it's great that he's sitting next to 29-year-old virgins! Sounds like there was talking about Chip & Reichen's relationship.

Team Who? (David & Jeff) depart at 4:02am with $120 to fly over 5,000 miles to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia and make their way to the Monsopiad Cultural Village for their next clue. Teams Clowns (Jon & Al) depart at 4:06am, in the middle of a thunderstorm. Kelly & Jon depart at 4:16am, Millie & Chick depart at 4:16am (the same minute?) and Reichen & Chip depart at 4:17am.David and Jeff hit the International Terminal at the airport (Cochin Airport?) and talk to a local who tells them to take Jet Airways back to Mumbai and surely you can get a flight to Malaysia from there, so they go to the domestic terminal. When Kelly & Jon get to the International Terminal, Kelly says: "Look - there's the goats!" (referring to David & Jeff) and follow them. David & Jeff at the Domestic Terminal find out that ticketing (which is a window outside of the terminal) opens at 6:30. Team Clowns show up at the domestic terminal. Chip & Reichen go to a back office of Air India to book their flights. Millie & Chuck arrive and hang outside of the office and try to eavesdrop on the booking arrangements being made inside. Millie gets pushed-out of the office by Reichen who's trying to shove the door shut.

Back at domestics, there's a short argument with locals trying to butt-in in line. Chip & Reichen have to go to the domestic terminal to book their arrangements. Millie & Chuck follow. The three teams at the Domestic terminal are all on the 8:30am flight to Mumbai. Millie & Chuck duck into the Domestic Terminal, see Team Clowns, and yell to Al "What flight are you taking?" and Al actually tells them.

Chip is at that Domestic ticket window asking if they can book a flight from Madras to Kuala Lumpur on Malaysian Airlines, and find out they can't (they're not helpful if the flights aren't with Jet Airways or Air India). Chip asks for a Travel Agent. They meet, he'll call his office and have the tickets issued. His office is an hour away in Cochin. If this whole ting works, they could get in before all the other teams.

The 8:30 flight leaves. Chip and Reichen and the Travel Agent arrive at his office - which is closed. They're waiting for someone to show up. When they finally look at the 12:20 flight that they were counting on - it was fully booked.

Meanwhile, everybody arrives in Mumbai and split-up. Kelly & Jon book a flight to Singapore. Millie & Chuck wind up doing the same. Jon & Al go to Kuala Lumpur. David and Jeff go to Singapore.

Back in Cochin, Chip & Reichen book a flight from Cochin to Kuala Lumpur and then everyone is in the air.

Kelly & Jon hit singapore at about 12:30am and they had to wait for their flight at 10:05am. The slept a full 8 hours on the carpet. Millie and Chuck are also in Singapore but they think there has to be an earlier flight. Millie starts calling around and gets a better flight at 8:40am

David and Jeff arrive in Singapore in the morning. Millie & Chuck arrive in Kuala Lumpur and then they see Chip & Reichen. Jon & Al are there as well, and they're on the same flight. They arrive in Malaysia and make their way to the cultural center, where they will receive a traditional good luck blessing and their next clue. Though Jon & Al's taxi pulled up first, Millie & Chuck are the first out of their cab. Chip & Reichen's driver misses the turn and can't turn around because it's a one way road and has to go kilometers out of the way to get back.

An elderly princess comes out to bless Millie & Chuck and Millie is scared and is freaking out, obviously because this just doesn't go along with their Christian beliefs (like "they could be putting a voodoo chant on us"). They receive the clue to make their way to the Kota Kinabalu Boat Jetty, where they will have to take a marked boat out to a fishing trawler to find their next clue.

Team Clowns take in the ceremony and look at it as a time to pause and reflect on their surroundings and what's going on - a pretty damn healthy way to approach the game!

The other teams finally arrive in Malaysia.

Chip & Reichen enjoy the ceremony, like they were getting married all over again.

Millie and Chuck grab a boat and go out to the fishing trawler. David and Jeff get their blessing and clue. Jon & Al hit the boat terminal. Millie and Chuck get to the trawler and find that it's a Detour - "Net" and "Trap" In "Net", teams have to take their boat to [this] fishing platform and use a net to catch 15 fish out of [these] marked pens in order to receive their next clue. The task doesn't require strength, but catching fish with a pole net requires a lot skill. In "Trap", teams must take their boat to [this] group of lobster boats. Then, they'll have to pull one of these weighted lobster traps up to get the clue inside. There's not much skill involved in lugging the traps out of the water, but raising the traps will require a good deal of brute force.

Millie & Chuck arrive at... the fishing platform? Huh? The boat driver drove them to the wrong place. So, they decided to do "Net" instead. Jon & Al get to a lobster trawler and start pulling. Chip & Reichen decide to do "Trap". Millie and Chuck decide to go into the fishing pens to help get more fish! Great scene where Millie is trying to put a fish into her basket and the graphic on the screen says MILLIE & CHUCK 4 Fish Caught and then you see this fish just jump right out of their basket , Millie yells "Shoot!" and the graphic changes to MILLIE & CHUCK 3 Fish Caught! Jon & Al are still hauling up the trap and get the next clue - "Have your boat driver take you to Manukan Island..." to the next Route Marker.

Chip & Reichen show up at... the fishing platform? Huh? Yes, their boat driver got mixed-up as well. They get back in their boat to go to a lobster trawler, and start hauling up a lobster trap..

Millie is working with the basket now. It's full of fish and water. The fish are splashing around. The graphic says MILLIE & CHUCK 8 Fish Caught. She says "I'm going to drain this water, Chuck..." and to the cry of "Millie!" from chuck, the graphic on the screen changes to MILLIE & CHUCK 7 Fish Caught as she dumps a fish with the water.

Chip & Reichen get their clue.

The graphic now says MILLIE & CHUCK 10 Fish Caught as she's walking around with the basket. Chuck says "Don't drop 'em baby, PLEASE!" and the next thing you know, Millie has fallen into the pen with the basket!

After a commercial break, we see Millie and Chuck get their next clue after (somehow) getting their 15 fish.

Team Clowns get to Manukan Island to find a Roadblock: "Who's skills are the most on target?" The person has to hit three different targets using three traditional Malaysian weapons: a bow and arrow, a blowpipe and a spear. Once they've hit all three targets successfully, they and their partner could race down the beach and check in here - the Pit Stop for this leg of the race.

Whoa! There's the proof! They're "checking in" - there's no mention of the last team being eliminated!

Jon is hooting arrows unsuccessfully. Chip * Reichen arrive and Chip starts to shoot. Millie and Chuck arrive and Chuck starts to shoot. Jon hits and advances. Chip hits and advances. Jon uses the blowpipe and hits and advances. Chuck is still shooting.

David and Jeff hist the fishing Trawler and decide to do "Net". Kelly and Jon arrive and decide to do Trap. Are they nuts? They have no idea how heavy that thing is..

Jon is now throwing spears, Chip is starting the blowpipe and Chuck is still shooting arrows, as Millie says very quietly "Oh, come on Charles...".

David & Jeff arrive at the fishing platform, Kelly & Jon arrive on a lobster trawler. Jon starts to pull on the rope while Kelly tries to get her gloves on. David & Jeff start scooping up fish... the problem is the fish are the size of a dime. They didn't go to the Official Amazing Race Fishing Pens - these were the wrong fish.

(At this point, my DirecTV reception goes to hell in a handbasket for the rest of the show, and I only get bits and pieces of what's actually going on)

Chuck is still shooting arrows. Jon & Kelly are trying to haul-up the lobster trap. Chip hits his target and moves on. Both Jon & Chip are throwing Spears. Chuck finally sinks an arrow. Chip hits his target with a spear and he and Reichen walk off looking around looking for the Pit Stop, which was down the beach. Jon hits his target, grabs his pack, and he and All haul ass down the beach. Chip & Reichen see The Clowns running down the beach and are upset like they were cheating. Both teams hit The Amazing Bathmat at the same time, but Phil decides that Jon & Al were the real First Place finishers and they receive a Vacation to Mexico courtesy of American Airlines website, "which you can enjoy after the race.". Chip and Reichen are then actually Team #2. Chuck hits his blowpipe target and starts throwing spears. David and Jeff are still catching fish, but Jon & Kelly just can't hold onto the lobster trap. David and Jeff get their 15 fish. Jon eventually lets go of the lobster trap. It's just too heavy for Kelly to help out. They get their boat to go the fishing platform. Chuck is still throwing spears. We now have a close-up of a basket on the deck of the fishing platform that has a graphic that reads KELLY & JON 8 Fish Caught, You see the water just churning inside the basket and then a fish jumps out and, yes, the graphic changes: KELLY & JON 7 Fish Caught. Kelly is yelling "He jumped out! That's not fair!" and goes over to the basket and proceeds to what looks like sit on the basket when Jon says "I need you to help, Kel. I mean, farting on the fish... I mean is not helping too much!" David and Jeff hit Manukan Island. Chuck is still throwing spears. Kelly & Jon get their 15 fish and their clue. Chuck finally hits his target and they sprint down the beach and arrive as Team #3. Jeff starting shooting his arrows and hits. Jon is betting on this is not an elimination leg. Jeff hits his blowpipe target. Jeff starts throwing spears. Jon & Kelly arrive on the beach. Jeff barely hits the top of his target and they sprint down the beach and arrive as Team #4. Kelly starts to shoot arrows while Jon is behind her "Be the arrow!" She's pissed. She hits the target. She hits her blowpipe target. She hits her spear target.

They half-heartedly trot down the beach.

"Kelly and Jon, you're the last team to arrive... The good news is this is not an elimination. This is the first of three pre-determined non-elimination legs, and you're still in the race."

What a strange show... the first oddity shows up in the tease before the show when they show an extremely short clip of Scott getting up off the couch in the Diary Room and there are two security guards in there with him.

Going for still another first for Big Brother (in the United States, at least) we are treated to a little sex in the HOH room between David and Amanda, which happened around 4am this morning and was available on the live internet feeds, at least during most of the action. It turns out that David got, um, sick and vomited after their lovemaking session. Apprently there was a bit too much alcohol involved.

In a 9-0 vote, Amanda Craig, the 25-year-old bar manager from Chicago, Illinois and former "ex" of expelled Scott, is the first houseguest evicted from Big Brother 4. We learn that the rumor I had heard earlier is true - there is a jury of 7 houseguests that will vote for the final winner, and those 7 will be sequestered before voting. Amanda is not one of the seven.

Holy crap, I'm tired... between work and excessive baseball, it's been a grind these last few days... a grind that I don't think I would have traded for anything!!!

Yes, I feel like hell. I know the brain is not firing on all cylinders right now. Problem determination skills are low.

Blogging? What's that? Oh... As an aside, I tried Audio Blogging from "The Cell" (aka "The Joan" aka TPFKAC) during the festivities, but was never able to get a signal that would stay up long enough. Would have been cool.

Another crummy day at work, another crummy drive into the city. The vehicle inspections seem a little bit more thorough. Gates opened at 4 for the 7 o'clock game. We had a long wait ahead of us, but we didn't care. It wasn't a wait - it was an experience.

Batting Practice was another home run clinic. When the AL was up, we were talking to our buddies Janie & Gary, who were in the row in front of us but at the end of the row (Note to self: - never sit in the outfield again. The rows are 24 seats long and it's just too hard getting people in and out of the row and still be able to see the game. That's why we like our section for season tickets - our row has only 8 seats and we're on the aisle).

Anyway, we're talking when Ichiro is in the batting cage, He hits a homer that hits Janie's bag back at her seat, which was to our right. As we're yakking about that, he hits another one, a few rows down but just to the left of us. As we talk some more, we lose sight of the fact that he's still in the cage as a ball bounces off a seat directly in front of us, scaring the crap out of us. We started to pay attention after that, still talking to each other just keeping our eyes on the field.

After BP, the team went out to center field, where they took their Team Photos. THE NL then came out for their Photos, and went in to take their batting practice. Barry Bonds eventually hit the cage toward the end of practice and put one on the concourse behind us, and later bounced one off the beer stand on the concourse. Would have made more excitement if was during last night's Home Run Derby!

The crowd slowly trickled into the park. The Marine Corps Marching Band played in Center Field, until they brought in a HUGE friggin' US Flag that took up the entire outfield. The crowd is starting to get pumped now, as we get into the player introductions, which I think is a pretty cool part of the pre-game. Any Cub player got booed. Barry Bonds got booed. Jerry Manuel got booed (after all, the team went on an embarrassing 1-7 road trip just before the break and everyone thinks he should get canned). Why did the boo Roger Clemens? Because he's a Yankee? Or was it because he was named to the team at the last moment to replace Barry Zito? The crowd went NUTS when they introduced Estaban Loaiza. I mean, here was a guy that was a non-roster invitee to training camp and is now the starting pitcher for the All-Star Game in his team's hometown.

The Canadian National Anthem was great (I found out later it wasn't broadcast... God, I hate Fox). The American National Anthem SUCKED. It was lip-synced by Vanessa Carlton. She looked terrible, she couldn't hide the lip-syncing.

But... This is the All-Star Game. At my ballpark. I was there. It's the National Anthem. There's the huge, friggin' flag in Center Field, and then... The Blue Angles fly a couple hundred feet over the scoreboard toward homeplate, and I was friggin' shuddering and may eyes welled up and... crap, I was into it.

The game started and the crowd settled-in. Loaiza did well - one hit and one strikeout in two innings. Clemens came in for an inning and had two strikeouts. It wasn't until the 4th when Shigetoshi Hasegawa came in and the next thing we know, the AL is losing 5-1. Time to walk around the park a bit.

The crowd was different. That park was packed (47,609), but there's no, um, "riff-raff". I guess it's because the ticket to the game costs $150 a seat. Definitely a lot of people with money.

The souvenir stands, buy the end of the night, are stripped clean. I've never seen that before. Then again, I've never been to an event of this size or exposure.

Back at the seats, I can hear the hometown fans starting to do the "O-E-O Magg-lio" chant, to get him into the game. He finally got in the 7th and the crowd went nuts again. It was only a pop-out, but when he came out onto the field the next inning, the crowd goes nuts again and he has to turn around and acknowledge the fans. This is so friggin' cool...

The AL has a huge 3-run comeback in the bottom of the 8th and former Sox Keith Foulke (who was not booed) came in and saved the game.

We stayed as long as we could. Tonight, they chased us out and we had to use the closest exit instead of being able to walk around the park.

When we were walking to the car, we noticed some people gathered around behind the home plate area outside. We still didn't want to leave, so we walked over and saw... Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich signing autographs. Then over to the side,up against the building, we noticed a lot of video crews standing around. We wandered over and it was all Japanese media, all pooled together, waiting for what appeared to be a press conference or personal appearance or something (Ichiro maybe?) There were a lot all jammed together, basically silent, just waiting.

We waited for a long time and nothing happened. It was time for us to leave.

So, after a bad half-day at the office, I went home, picked-up Carol, and drove down to "The Cell". Being a weekday, traffic on the Kennedy was a mess. We still got there just before the gates opened for the day. Today, however, was a new experience.

All vehicles were being searched. We had to stop, open the trunk, and had police inspect inside the car. The real disturbing part, however, was a gentleman who scanned the car with a geiger counter. Once inside the park, you see more stepped-up security - lots of Chicago Police plus un-uniformed security with dogs (shepherds, so it was more attack and control than say a beagle for smelling for specific things). I saw people from different departments, including U.S. Marshals. It was the first time that I realized how big of a national event this really was, but there was this nagging feeling in the back of my mind - was there a specific or non-specific threat that warranted this much security?

The day starts with the Pepsi Pitch, Hit & Run National Finals. Hardly anyone is in the park to support the kids, but it was a nice event for them.

It was workout day, so the next event was American League and National League Batting Practice. Being out in the outfield is the perfect place for today's events. Unfortunately, Carol got bowled-over by a guy a few seats next to her who came our way after a ball that he wasn't too close to. She was pissed and yelled at the guy for slamming into her for a ball he couldn't get to. A brief ugly moment.

One thing that was noticeable - hardly anybody from the NL hit any homers.

At 7 o'clock, it was time for the Century 21 Home Run Derby. Now THAT was LOTS of fun. It started with another mini-concert - this time it was The Ataris playing their version of Don Henley's "The Boys Of Summer" (it started-off the ESPN broadcast). The place was pretty packed (only a few seats open), but, in general, people behaved going for balls. There was a ball that went into the section next to us, and all of a sudden a fishing net came out of nowhere and snagged the ball. The place went nuts, mostly because no one noticed the net before, and well, he used a net to catch the ball and not a glove.

Our drive to "The Cell" wasn't bad, with the traffic being light, even around the ballpark. All of the park's "official" parking lots were "Coupon Only" (which we had), so it kept a lot of the traffic away from the area. Our coupon was for a different lot than our Season Ticket coupons, so we parked north of the park instead of south. That allowed us to view the outside of the park a bit better, and that's when I finally saw it. I don't know how long it's been this way, but it's now official. Gone was the banner that hung over the "Comiskey Park" that was carved into the concrete. It now says U.S. Cellular Field. Not because of a temporary banner - it was now carved into the facade. Damn.

The park had minimal decoration. Center Field had a star mowed into it, and the All-Star logo was in front of each dugout. There was some new advertising on the outfield wall, but that was about it. No bunting draped from the rails. I guess that's only used for Opening Day and Post-Season play. I love bunting.

Security was definitely increased. In fact, down the lines where we normally sit, they moved the tiny little walls just slightly to allow security personal to sit on stools between the rail and wall and not interfere with the fans or the game. They didn't make the walls any higher (or safer for the players), they just moved them.

Of course, they needed more seating for VIPs, so they added 2 rows between the dugouts and the backstop, complete with a Plexiglas shield for safety.

We had tickets to the week's events, but, unfortunately, they were not our normal season ticket seats. Instead of being down the first base line, we're out in straight-away right field. All of our season ticket buddies were also out there... somewhere... strewn aomng the outfield sections. Our buddies Janie & Gary were at least in our section, in the row in front of us, but down at the opposite side of the section.

The crowd was not big, but it was scattered as if every seat was sold. It was RadioShack All-Star Sunday. The first event was the Futures Game. Top minor league prospects play a 7-inning game in a USA versus The World format.

Unfortunately, it was a bit boring.

You didn't know the players at all (though you knew their team affiliation). The play was slow. Pitching speeds were in the high 80's on average. It was minor league play. Good minor league play, but slow. It took about 2½ hours for a 7-inning game, that's how slow. In between innings, RadioShack was giving away prizes to fans either answering questions on camera, or just giving away stuff to entire rows of fans.

The game finally ended, and large flatbed trucks came onto the field and lined-up on the infield dirt. They were loaded with speakers and musical instruments. The band LIVE came out and played 2 songs (live, of course). I though this was a great way to have a quick concert without tearing up the field or having excessive setup & tear-down time.

They setup a temporary fence in the sort outfield to be used as the outfield wall for the All-Star Legends & Celebrity Softball Game. By now, a lot of people have left, and "Celebrity"? We're stretching things a bit. Trista Rehn (The Bachelorette) and Andrew Firestone (The Bachelor)? (From what I've heard, everybody was interested in meeting Trista.)

The game was fun but SLOW. The pause in between innings was almost as long as the inning. Since it was being taped to be shown after the Home Run Derby tomorrow night, I have know idea if the pausing was necessary.

By the end of the 5-inning game, there was hardly anybody left in the park. The game's MVP was Bo Jackson. Carol and I went down behind the plate after the game, trying to take pictures (very hard in a crowd and trying to keep still when in low light levels in a crowd is hard). The cool thing was that no customer service people kicked us out. Period. I have no idea how long we could have stayed there. Probably until the field was cleared.

We eventually took out time and leisurely left the park. What an odd feeling - it felt like we were alone. And this is All-Star Week.

THEME
OK, before I head into another day of baseball bliss, I had to find out what is going on... it looks like Scott, the idiot who lists Chicago as his hometown and not New York (where he's really from), was thrown out of the house overnight.

He had some kind of hissy-fit and was throwing chairs around. He just flipped, I guess. He's swearing up a storm, telling the producers: "you don't f---ing own me!!!" Well, duh, yes they do as long as the show is in production (and I think for some time after as well). He's called to go into the Diary Room and yells that he isn't going, you can f---ing come and get me" and then the live internet feeds drop. Some time later he comes back apologizing to the houseguests about having problems with dealing with genital warts (HPV?) and his STD, which freaks out the houseguests (who have been upset about him for days, even without the throwing of chairs and his genital warts, and have been talking specifically about "fear" and "safety" concerns), but freaks out Ali enough that later she starts bawling and gets sick in the bathroom (thinking that she can catch the STD and something about "signing away her rights" (to what, sue?)). I think Michelle doesn't handle it well either (some of the houseguests think "she'll be scarred for life"). I think they were affraid of contracting something because of the hot tub and other close confinement issues. Again - some of these people are a little "young" and may not handle the STD issue well.
Anyway, Scott gets called into the Diary Room one last time at around 10:30pm there time last night... and is never seen again.

It was time for the annual "Chicken Burn" at our friend's Janie & Gary's place. This year, however, wouldn't be chicken, it was a great marinaded pork hunk-o-meat, and there wasn't any burning. We sat out on their deck for hours, and never really got bothered by mosquitoes - only gnats that we got rid of by burning these tiki-torch candle things (that were probably made of citronella). So we sat outside, talked baseball, jobs, cars (Gary is leasing a new Volvo S60 this week). Learned an interesting grilling technique for corn - wrap the ear with a quality piece of thick bacon (yum). Janie made Key Lime pie for dessert (double yum!) that had lime zest on the top of it. Wonderful! IO like being able to sit around and just talk and drink. Of course, later we turned-on a radio and listened to our beloved Sox lose another one... This was a long day, and there's a few long days ahead of us.

We drive downtown to McCormick Place South for FanFest. The walk from the parking lot takes almost 20 minutes. It's a HUGE hall, and it's full of baseball stuff. It's Not like SoxFest, with local vendors selling, well, "junk" and a few seminars and autographs. No, this is Baseball. This is Mecca. My Mecca.

We stop at Home Town Heroes. It's a huge display area, just on the history of the White Sox, our own "legends" (OK, "Fan Favorites"), and a little history of the All-Star game at Comiskey. After all, the game originated there.

Next door was a large display on the Negro Leagues - uniforms in lockers, photographs, history. We were upset that we didn't see anything on Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe.

When we left that exhibit, we noticed some mascots working their way through the crowd with a sign about a Mascot Home Run derby at 10. Well, we had to check this out.

They had built a small ball field in the middle of McCormick Place, "The Diamond". It was used for clinics and seminars. Now, it was used for the Century 21 Mascot Home Run Derby. Baseball mascots are a bit unfamiliar to us fans in Chicago. Sure, the Sox had some decades ago, but this is Chicago - you don't have mascots for baseball. Well, at least Major League baseball. A few were a bit "weak" as mascots go, but we fell in love with The Bird
from the Orioles and Lou Seal from the Giants. Anyway, the winner (Junction Jack from the Astros, now a two-time winner) won a dream clubhouse for a kid. (Sort of like a tiny version of the actual Home Run Derby where the winner wins a house for a fan.) It was an absolute blast watching this.

Off to more exhibits. THe National Baseball Hall Of Fame had items that weren't at the Baseball As America exhibit at the Field Museum. The items were a bit skewed toward chicago, but still was a nice representation of items that they have.

Next door was an exhibit by Major League Baseball that had all of the trophies and awards that they will be giving out this year, like the actual 2003 World Series Trophy, MVP Trophy, All-Star MVP trophy, Golden Glove, Silver Slugger... you name it, it was there.

There was an area where you can call famous plays of the game and get your own videotape copy. There was a place to get your very own baseball card made, in your favorite uniform, with your own stats.

We had to take a break, and fortunately there was a food area right when we needed it. (That's were I decided to call-in and Audblog for you).

We walked through the Cyber Game area, filled with baseball video games by all the manufacturers on different platforms. Lots of action there.

Then there was something that I never was exposed to when I was growing up - Card Flipping. Fleer had a place where you can have Card Flipping contests to win cards and T-Shirts. It was foreign to me - was this something that was done between kids to trade cards by winning them?

There was a Legends autograph signing are that not only had MLB legends (and local legends) but Negro league and women's baseball as well.

The other side of the hall were the interactive exhibits. The batting cages were busy. The video batting cages were REALLY busy. You can go into the cage and pick the pitcher you want to pitch to you. A video was played of the appropriate pitcher as viewed from the batter. There was a small hole cut in the screen right at the pitcher's release point where the ball would be delivered to the batter. We watched a 20-something step in and pick Greg Maddox. The kid steps in and Maddox appears on the video. He goes into his wind-up and WHAP the ball hits the back of the cage. It froze the kid who was startled and tried to shake it off. I don't think he was able to hit any of his pitches. The combination of the video and the ball delivery is VERY convincing. There was also a video pitching cage as well, where you can pitch to your favorite batter. That was very busy as well, with wait time of over an hour.

It was time to hit the store - Carol owed me a shirt, so we just had to stop. It was difficult to get out of that place without buying something. We were not successful - many things were bought.

But it was just outside the store where I found the thing I have wanted all my life. Louisville Slugger was making bats with your name on it! I had to have one! They laser-etch your name in there in front of you, and then a guy who is a fourth generation bat maker adds the paint to bring the name out. It was sooooo cool! My name on my bat. Wow.

We then walked through the vendor area. Again, a higher quality of stuff than I've seen at SoxFest. After all, these are people from around the country, not from just around the area.

It was time to go to Janie & Gary's house for a barbecue. I took one look around before we left. As I did, I realized something - I felt... different.

It wasn't until much later that I realized what it was.

I was happy. Happy. I haven't felt like that in a very long time. Baseball does something to me. It's in my bones, it's in my heart, it's in my life.

Even though that it actually started yesterday, today is the first day of All-Star Game festivities for us!!!!

Yes, we have tickets to all of the All-Star Game events. Today is John Hancock All-Star FanFest at McCormick Place - 300,000 square feet of interactive games, exhibits, memorabilia, merchandise and other baseball-themed attractions.

Tonight, an awful lot of talk about how hot Nathan is, and then how hot Michelle is.

Then a Food Challenge: teams of two must put enough potatoes into a drum to be within 25 pounds of the partner's weight to win a food category. So, for the week, they won Snacks/Desserts(Scott/Amanda) - 18lbs off, Breads/Pastas/Cereals(Jee/Dana) - 23lbs off, and Beer/Wine/Soft Drinks/Juices(Justin/Alison) - 24lbs off. They're not going to have any Dairy (Jack/Jun) - 31lbs off, Meats/Poultry/Seafood(David/Michelle) - 38lbs off or Fruits/Vegetables(Robert/Erika) - 40lbs off.

I'm not happy with a LOT of people in this house - most of them are coming across as too "young". Anyway, Nathan nominates Amanda and Jee.

Time for another Friday Five... 1. Do you remember your first best friend? Who was it? I think it was Paul from down the street. We used to play what seems like everyday. I don't ever remember playing football with him, mostly only baseball.2. Are you still in touch with this person? No. I have no idea what happened to the family.3. Do you have a current close friend? I thought about this for a while. Other than my wife, I think I do now - I think it's my buddy Barry4. How did you become friends with this person? I Interviewed him for a job back in '90 (or was it '91?). We were co-workers after that, and we started doing things over that time. When I parted ways with the company, we always kept in touch (so did our wives). We travel together and go out together.5. Is there a friend from your past that you wish you were still in contact with? Why? Yeah, a former co-worker Randy, who was just a great guy. No matter how you slice it, this guy was fun and was good at what he did.

The teams are still in Mumbai, India. Team Who? (David & Jeff) are the first to depart the Pit Stop at 12:51am. Teams must now travel 43 miles to the town of Panvel, find the train station, and ride 860 miles by train to a place called Ernakulam Junction. They have $70 for the leg. Team Who? arranged for a taxi the night before. Chip & Reichen go to a hotel's concierge to arrange their cab. Kelly and Jon talk to a local who says you can get to Panvel Station from Victoria Station. Millie & Chuck go to Panvel. Jon & Al also talk to a local about Panvel, and find out about Victoria. They opt for a hotel stay, since the ticket windows won't open until 4am. Tian & Jaree are in a cab going the wrong direction on a freeway! (hence, the title of this week's episode). Team Who? is out of their cab at a building... that used to be Panvel Station (they think it's someone's house!) and they have to go to the new Panvel Station.The get to the new place and opt for going to a hotel and wait. Tian & Jaree spend the night with Chip & Reichen on the floor of the train station. It's the next morning, and we see Kelly & Jon board the train from Victoria Terminal to Panvel Station at 6:38am. Team Clown (Jon & Al) catch the next train at 7:10am. You get the distinct feeling that these groups are falling behind since they're not even in Panvel. Kelly & Jon get to Panvel and meet-up with the others. Team Clowns arrive, followed by Team Who? (weren't they first to Panvel?). All of the teams are together, taking the same train, which apparently reeks. Jon & All decide they can't take the heat and smell after train is underway, so they opt to upgrade to a first class air-conditioned car. Everyone else then decided to upgrade - except Team Virgins (Millie & Chuck).

The train rolls-on for 26 hours. Kelly & Jon start talking about their mean-spirited nicknames for Millie ("Millie-Mole") and Chuck ("Werewolf") with Chip & Reichen. Jon thinks Millie's mole is growing during the course of the race due to stress.

The train pulls into Ernakulam and everyone tries to find a cab. Teams must travel along National Highway 47 and search among thousands of billboards for the route marker... David & Jeff get a cab driver who's name is Money??? Chip argues with drivers making sure that their gas tank is full. Team Who? finds the Route Marker first. Teams must now travel an additional 25 miles by taxi to the town of Alleppey and find [a] locally known sports field, where they'll get their next clue.

Lots of typical cab race jockeying. Millie & Chuck have to stop for gas. Chip & Reichen are the last team to find the billboard. Millie & Chuck's cab starts beeping and it's now overheating. Reichen & Chip's taxi has to stop for gas.

Team Who gets to this "field" which is actually underwater. The Route Marker is a Roadblock. In this Roadblock, that person has to take part in a sport invented over a hundred years ago by local farmers - Bull Racing. In this sport, they'll have to hang onto a team of bulls while they race at top speed along this mud track, approximately the length of a football field. If they can hang on until the end, they will get their next clue. But only one team may bull-race at a time, so if they fail to hang on, they'll have to go to the end of any line that may have formed and wait until they can try again.

OK, this sucks. this is mud (and probably bull feces and God knows what). David goes first and succeeds, but... he's wearing his clothes - his shirt pants and shoes. Ew.

Teams must now travel through the town of Alleppey to Beach Road (there's a beach here?) and find [this] Route Marker where they'll find their next clue.

Clown Al goes next and succeeds. (These people look like hell, and I don't know how the taxi drivers are letting these people in their cabs).

Tian is next and quickly fails (this is her sixth consecutive Roadblock for her Team). Jon goes next and succeeds. (At least he doesn't have his shoes on). Tian tries and fails again. Tian tries again and actually makes it. (Back in the cab, a bubbly Jaree tells Tian "You look sexy as shit, right now with all that mud on you, I swear to God. That's hot, dude. That totally hot.")

Chuck succeeds at the race. Reichen succeeds.

Team Who? gets to the Route Marker - a Detour. In this Detour, the choice is "Baskets" or Trunks". In "Baskets", teams must load 10 live chickens into the baskets on one of these traditional bicycle-powered wagons. Then, navigating for themselves, they must deliver the chickens to the farm circled on [this] map. Riding the bikes in the boiling hot sun could be exhausting, but teams can go as fast as their legs allow. In "trunks", teams must load two bales of traditional Indian fabric known as coir onto an elephant. Then, they must deliver the fabric to the coir shop circled on [this] map. Riding the elephant should not be tiring at all, but teams will only travel as fast as the elephant wants to go. Either either task, teams must deliver their cargo before they'll receive their next clue.

Everyone starts to take "Trunks" (not a surprise for Team Clowns). David: "Riding an elephant is painful. That spine of that elephant is very close to the skin, so you feel it right up the old... uh... you know... 'friendly family' there."

Tian & Jaree do trunks because Jaree wanted to do elephants if they went to India - it looked like Tian was thinking about "Baskets" but was definitely overridden. Then they start to leave without their two bundles of coirs. As they pull out, last place Chip & Reichen get to the Detour and choose "Baskets" instead, to try to make up time.

Best line of the show that should have been made the title:

Jon: "I'm in so much pain!:
Kelly: "You are??? I have a chain up my cookie!" MP3

Team Who? gets to the market first. The Route Marker clue tells them to go to The Finishing Point, which usually is the finishing line for the town's boat races (I guess there is a lake).

David & Jeff are the first team to arrive, a seven-night cruise vacation to the Western Caribbean on Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas. Phil also says to David "And you... really need a shower".

Team Clowns (John and Al) are the second team to arrive (Hey, Phil's wording this week is odd. They're not "Team Number Two", they're "The second team to arrive", almost like this could have been a non-elimination leg. At the top of the show, Phil said in the tease "Who will be eliminated ... next" instead of the usual "Who will be eliminated... tonight".)

It's now a Race for last between Tian & Jaree on the elephant and Reichen (pedaling) and Chip. Editing shows both of them getting the clue at the same time.

Kelly and Jon are the third team to arrive, Millie & Chuck are the fourth.

Reichen and Chip run down a path and are the fifth team to arrive.

A muddy, dirty, smelly Tian and sweaty Jaree hit the Amazing Bathmat last, and are eliminated from the race.

Next week: Millie drowns. Well, not really. At least I don't think so...

At Milwaukee Brewers games, there's a weird little piece of Americana that happens between the 6th and 7th innings - the Brewers/Klement's Racing Sausages. Basically, it's 4 people dressed-up in sausage costumes the run a race. Hokey, yes, but somehow this just seems all-American, and All-Midwestern (if there was such a term), and is just part of the legacy of baseball that we see all over the minor league systems, brought forward to the major leagues.

Last night, however, turned... weird.

Pittsburgh first baseman Randall Simon was booked for misdemeanor battery for hitting the Italian Sausage as she went by the Pirates' third-base dugout. As the Italian Sausage went down, she took down the Hot Dog as well.

That's just not right.

(They both were treated at the scene for scraped knees.)

Oh, and the Bratwurst won.

Update: The sausages didn't want to file criminal charges, so the sheriff cited Simon with Disorderly Conduct and fined him $432.

You know, Carol & I were talking after the show last night and we realized there weren't enough beds. Big Brother invented the Bed Pass. The "exes" were given a Bed Pass that would allow them to claim any bed they chose, kicking someone out of their bed,m forcing them to sleep... elsewhere. Think "bed sharing". The first Luxury Challenge to open-up the locked Hot Tub involved bathing suits, slime, and having someone else removing the slime off your body and putting it in a container that's on a cantelever that will raise a box revealing the key to the lock. Another convoluted challenge with a lot of touching of bodies. Still a lot of scheming among the original houseguests to get rid of the exes. On Day 3, it's time for the Head Of Household (HOH) competition. Iy has to do with "kneelers" and "sitters", where the kneeler is in an odd position, kneeling on a trigger that will dump fish chum on their sitter if they move off.

Carol has a friend that's been a coworker of her's ever since she started at her company. They sit across from each other. They go to WeightWatchers together.

For a while now, the coworker has been having some very odd neurological problems. Her doctors recognize that there is something wrong, but were stumped about what it could be.

Her problems have gotten increasingly severe.

Finally, one night, her husband rushes her to a hospital - they can't stand it any longer. They happen to hit the ER during a time when a neurologist is there on rotation. He was concerned and brought in a number of other neuro-specialists and they convinced her that they will work with her until they could identify what was going on.

The coworker had been doing her own research and she was worried that it could be MS - Multiple Sclerosis, though she didn't have some of the symptoms.

The doctors ruled it out. But they did finally come up with the diagnosis:ALS, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (often called Lou Gehrig's disease).

She's married and in her 30's. And now she has ALS.

Let's just say it was not a good day in the office when the staff found out.

It was soooooo nice to see everyone back on the road from their 4th of July vacations. (Of course, I'm being facetious). Monday was fine, yesterday wasn't bad, today we have a nice sunny morning (for a change) and everyone is out and moving slow. Great.

Well, the next edition of Big Brother has started. The house is still the same house, but redecorated. Much more colorful. No real feelings for the houseguests. They won their first food challenge. CBS got the reaction they had hoped when the 5 exes entered the house. An awful lot of people freaked over the situation. Should be interesting, but I'm not sure it's something I want to watch. We'll see.

Ok, short story - I was moving a computer from one cube to a common area. It was being placed underneath a folding table. I was working at plugging-in some of the equipment when I leaned in and... OUCH!!! CRAP!!!! I hit one of the cross-supports with the top of my head. And I start bleeding. Great. It doesn't stop and it hurts.

So, for the first Workman's Comp case of my career, I get driven to a local clinic to make sure it was OK. I couldn't view the wound directly, but I could tell I know had a flap of skin.

So, after getting the wound cleaned and some steri-strips applied to close the wound (a typical flap scalp lac) and getting a tetanus shot, I was back at the office with a huge friggin' bandage on my head.

THEME
The show hasn't started broadcasting yet (though the houseguests are in the house), and CBS has booted out one of them.

Brandon Showalter, a 28-year-old computer engineer from Newport Beach, Calif., got booted after he was caught trying to make contact with his girlfriend while he was sequestered in a hotel for a week prior to going into the house, and has now been replaced with the ex-flame of one of the other contestants.

Would you choose to get terminated within a week so that you can finally leave a job that you have hated since Day One, or linger-on part time to do fill-in work knowing that at least some money is coming in while in this bad job market?

Bachelor Rob Campos blows it by choosing Erin over love-smitten Paige Jones. Erin choses $1 million over Rob. Rob loses. But, gee, just like every single other reality TV show this year - there's a twist. Erin comes back to the house 3 weeks later with her check in hand. Why? To burn her check. Why? Because she's moving into the house with 15 guys. She's been there - she knows the rules of the game. But, if she can get the one guy she choses to chose her over the money, she wins $2 million. If she loses - she loses everything. Sort of double or nothing. Yes, it's For Love or Money 2.

The day started with breakfast at the Blue Plate Cafe. Very uneven and actually a bit disappointing. Service was fair to poor and the food was... OK.

We spent the day back at the house resting or bobbing in the pool. I actually, for the first time in my life, sat down with a game console all by myself. I played harry Potter on Diane's PlayStation 2. It was my first experience just playing a game for that platform. It was interesting and kept me entertained for hours. Diane and Melinda whipped up a lunch for us as well - mostly Sloppy Joe's that my mom made and they reheated, as well as leftovers from yesterday.

We decided to leave about 4 o'clock to try and beat some of the traffic back into the city. The radio kept telling us about the severe weather in the Chicago area and you can hear the crackle of lightning over the AM reception. The traffic on 94 started getting bad. Then it started to crawl. We stopped in Portage Indiana to get gas and pick up Powerball tickets ($240 million!!!). It was still crawling and actually getting worse on I-94. I decided to take US 12 into the city. I just couldn't take the "not moving" part of this and at this rate, it felt like it would be hours before we got home.

US 12 took us through, um, "interesting" areas of Gary, Whiting, and Hammond. When driving to Diane's on Friday, I had noticed that the Skyway had two lanes open going eastbound but only one lane open going westbound. I really wanted to avoid that at all costs. We did, however, get up to a Skyway entrance ramp and saw that the traffic was actually moving pretty well. I decide to get on - and found out that instead of a single lane, they had flipped the configuration over the weekend and we had 2 lanes going westbound. The weather started moving-in as soon as we got to that stupid $2 Toll Plaza. It started to rain. Hard. Winds shook the car. Traffic was crawling again, but we were closer to town now. Once we got to the Dan Ryan, things started to clear-up - both in traffic and weather, though the standing water was pretty bad in many places.

We got to my mom's house after 7pm. I just happen to go inside to, um, "use the facilities" when I noticed that the power was out. Sort of. Most of the circuits were out, but the air conditioning was on, the refrigerator was on, and a few lights worked. The rest of the house was dark. One of the neighbors came over to try to help us figure out what was going on.

That's when we found out the scary part. We found out from a next door neighbor that there were "flames" coming from where the electrical wire entered the house! Thank God it's a brick house! Sure enough, you can see where the insulation was gone on the wires going into the pipe that goes to the electric meter which feeds the house. Calling Commonwealth Edison was a trip - because of the tens of thousands of people without power due to all the storms over the past days, the automated attendant now just tells you to call again later and hangs up! We got mom settled and she felt OK about staying there overnight.

We finally got home after 9pm. We're exhausted. Indy is pissed (she didn't like being left alone for all that time).

Not a great finish to the 4th of July weekend, but we had some good times.

Diane & Melinda whipped up a breakfast of pancakes and bacon. Mom swept the deck to try to get the rain and debris off of it. I skimmed the pool, which was a mess due to all of the huge trees surrounding their back yard.

We're starting to find out about the sirens yesterday - 7 people drowned in Lake Michigan (one at the beach at the end of the road). Apparently the storms were really bad and caused huge waves with a hellacious undertow. They haven't found all of the bodies...

Carol & I stayed "home" while the rest of the crew went to Michigan City to the Lighthouse Outlet Mall. Around 2pm, we all met at Redamak's for a lunch of greasy burgers with fries and onion rings. Then it was back to the house to get ready for our full evening of events.

We're off to Dewey Cannon Park in Three Oaks, not too far from the house. Tonight is "Milly's (mostly music) Hootenanny II". Milly is Milly May Smithy, the alter-ego of Chicago-based performance artist (and also former alto saxophonist of Poi Dog Pondering) Brigid Murphy. She's been putting on these revues since 1987 with "Milly's Orchid Show", comprising mostly of friends that's she's met along her way (tonight it's Robbie & Donna Fulks, Anna Fermin's Trigger Gospel, The Rip Tones, Jane's Kountry Kin and The Village Square Dancers, for starter).

What really got me tonight, other than Milly's entrance on the back of a huge chicken in the back of a pickup, was the overwhelming sense of community at this event. It's a small park, next to some high-speed Amtrak tracks that cut through town. It takes place in the gazebo in he center of this small park. Milly's entrance was preceded by a parade of kids in dress-up clothes (that they got to keep). There also was a Bake Sale and Barbecue for the Little league.

The show was over two hours, was a bit uneven with some of the acts, but was just an absolute wonderful time that I could not imagine missing.

After the show, we headed over to the 6th Annual Harbor Country Blues Festival at Watkins Park in Three Oaks. Well, actually, we didn't go in. Watkins Park is where the fireworks were scheduled to go off at 11:00. Diane and I scoured the area to find a good spot outside of Blues Fest, and find a spot over the centerfield wall at the ball fields there. We were basically alone and just waited for darkness, and then waited for the fireworks. Blues Fest didn't sound all that great - we were able to hear it from out location. I'm glad we saved the money. Anyway, the fireworks were pretty cool - there's no music, no other sound since there was no one else around us. Just the sound of the motor igniting and the fireworks igniting. Weird. Quiet. Eerie, in a way. They lasted almost 20 minutes and then we went back home and crashed.

Been up for a few hours now, off and on. A pretty bad thunderstorm system has been moving through since 4am. Lots of lightning, thunder, rain and wind. Pretty dark outside during all of this, but it looks like it's moving on.

What a great, relaxing day. Carol & I picked-up my mom just before 9 o'clock and drove up to Diane's house in Michigan. Traffic was almost non-existent. We hung around, had lunch, and went into the pool.

Yes, I actually put on a bathing suit and got into the pool. It's been over a decade since I've done that. Was in the water for a few hours, tossing these floating balls back and forth down the length of the pool. For some reason, the dogs (well, Chelsea more than Gracie) just love to chase the balls. Chelsea even tries to get them out of the pool. She got a bit excited and actually fell in and I had to scoop her up and push her out of the pool.

Even though Harbert, Michigan is a very very quiet little town, we've been hearing sirens that seem to be going up and down Read Arrow Highway. Then there have been an ambulance and a (cool looking) Rescue Hummer that went screaming down the road out front, coming from the beach. Something is up.

After a few hours of thrashing around, I got real nauseous and got this huge headache, so I crawled out of the pool, got dressed, and laid down and the couch and passed-out for a few hours. I have no idea what that was about.

Dinner tonight, again cooked by Diane and Melinda, was steak and lobster tails, corn and baked potatoes, all done on the grill. I was still not feeling the greatest, and I felt bad for not eating everything, but it was all very good. That was the first time I had grilled lobster tail and I could definitely do that again!

So, we watched what little TV we could up here (no cable, no satellite) - watched coverage of 4th of July festivities from Washington, Boston, and New York. There weren't any fireworks up here today - we're doing that tomorrow night (fireworks at 11pm just sounds late to me...)

Time for another Friday Five... 1. What were your favorite childhood stories? I have no recollection of any stories or books. Don't know why.2. What books from your childhood would you like to share with [your] children? Have no idea since I can't remember any.3. Have you re-read any of those childhood stories and been surprised by anything? Again, I don't remember reading anything.4. How old were you when you first learned to read? Wow. I don't know. 5 or 6 maybe.5. Do you remember the first 'grown-up' book you read? How old were you? Don't remember that at all.Wow, this was enlightening...

From Amsterdam to India, from cheese and eels to poverty, Bollywood, crowded trains, groping, washing, and carrying fish, you knew this wasn't going to be good. In the end, Team NFL, a.k.a. "The Supremes", Monica (or as Phil says, "Monicker") and Sheree are eliminated from the race.

Scott Weintraub - 33, a Waiter from Chicago, IL (oh, oh...). He's from Chicago but his favorite team is the Knicks? His favorite magazines are Slam, Playboy, and Penthouse, his favorite movie is Old School and he likes rap.

Everyone is single except for Jack who was divorced. The "X Factor" houseguests will be announced later - probably after the houseguests enter the house tomorrow, but most likely on Tuesday July 8 - the night of the Premiere show.

The traffic this week is light - it's obvious many people are using the "short week" to extend their vacations. However, because the commuter traffic is down, the ratio of truck traffic to commuter traffic is way up, and it's causing horrendous delays, especially when you have three loaded semi's side-by-side, three lanes across, who accelerate slowly due to their loads. No one is on the street, but you're only going 20 mph because the trucks are in the way.

Kenny traded minor league pitchers Royce Ring and Edwin Almonte and infielder Andrew Salvo to the Mets for Roberto Alomar, Sandy's brother. he's been described as "underachieving" this year, so, though I'm worried about his future performance this year, he's still a quality guy with a great past.

Now speaking of pasts, the Sox got a great player that, in generalities, could be described as a "head case" - they acquired outfielder-designated hitter Carl Everett from Texas, along with cash considerations, for players to be named later. (Texas will choose from a pool of minor leaguers, and depending on the players selected, they will either get two or three players.)

I'm really worried about team chemistry with this one.

Now, how do you make some room for these guys? The Sox designated both D’Angelo Jimenez and Armando Rios for assignment. The team has 10 days to decide whether to release the pair, trade them or option them to Charlotte, but I had thought I had heard that they were out of options.

On this next edition of Big Brother, there will be 13 houseguests instead of 12. Of the 13, only 9 are "total strangers".

Huh?

Well, there is going to be 4 houseguests that are "exes" - former spouses, ex-boyfriends or ex-girlfriends of other houseguests. They may have parted on good terms or not. The exes were recruited after the 9 houseguests were cast. The houseguests all enter the house on July 4th, though the first airing of the show isn't until July 8 (this is pretty typical for the show - gives them time to edit things together before the scheduled air date), and they were sequestered on June 29. The house is - allegedly - newly constructed on the same lot as the old house.

Another possible twist - according to a rumor, only seven houseguests would vote for the winner and they would be sequestered after being evicted from the house. In fact, according to reports, they will be put into a second house where they will still be taped, and some of that footage will be added to the show. However, they will only be allowed to see selected portions of the show, and nothing from the Diary Room, so they cannot change their minds based on what they see there. (Sounds like that big Danielle backlash from last year got to the producers).

In another case of backlash, no one will be brought back after getting booted out (like Amy last year).

There are no houseguests that are married this time around, and they have the youngest and oldest houseguests to date (19 and 59).

Other rumors - The U.S. version will be seen in the U.K. (Why? Their ratings are down this year, why broadcast another version, unless their's is so boring? The U.K. version is also in the middle of something very cool - they're swapping one of their houseguests with one from Big Brother Africa, which is a huge ratings winner on that continent, as well as igniting a new understanding of the people of its many countries.)

Oh, and Real.com picked-up the live internet feeds again for this season.

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